If you’ve followed the Kalanick story till now, there’s nothing new in this article. However, it’s interesting to see it all put together.
Anyone know what it’s like inside Uber today?
Anyone know what it’s like inside Uber today?
Frances Frei is a former Harvard Business School professor and arranged for several HBX classes from Harvard professors on business strategy that were very interesting and helpful. Having her as a guide as to how a great company should be behaving is a huge asset.
TK was great and built the entire industry but he overstepped his abilities and became his and Uber’s worst enemy.
I’m assuming after the SoftBank deal closes many long time employees will be gone. And why shouldn’t they, they are worth millions at this point, but only number in the hundreds. And this happens to all companies in the same situation, like google, Facebook, Dropbox, etc.
Overall the pace has slowed dramatically and has a big company feel. But the majority of people, myself included, are fiercely proud of the work that we do and the product that we have built.
The food could be better, though. Maybe after we become profitable? (This is an internal joke to all Uber employees)
Which classes?
I got in just a month before TK stepped out, shortly before the Holden report, and Liane Hornsay and Frances Frei joined. Since then, the company implemented a crisis hotline where you can anonymously report abuse, it ran courses about what's considered inappropriate behavior, and there's a huge overhaul going on with regards to the cultural values and the performance appraisal process. Frances was particularly vocal about the inadequacy of the top 3 bottom 3 system that was in place before.
I mentioned this before elsewhere, but when Liane had a board member step down the afternoon after he made a sexist comment in a all-hands meeting, it spoke volumes about how serious they were about setting new norms at Uber.
I also recall seeing an email a few months ago that basically said that whoever was working on any competitive intelligence project involving spying was to halt all further work effective immediately. The culture of doing things right is definitely becoming a thing.
In some places the CEO is a distant figurehead, and whatever his or her values, the day-to-day experience is more dominated by your local crew of < 20 people. In other places, culture is truly pervasive. I feel like the reporting is saying that culture is pervasive at Uber, but it would be interesting to hear an inside perspective.
Why in the world would you think it needs a peacetime CEO?
Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In times of peace, the company can focus on expanding the market and reinforcing the company’s strengths.
In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. Such a threat can come from a wide range of sources including competition, dramatic macro economic change, market change, supply chain change, and so forth. The great wartime CEO Andy Grove marvelously describes the forces that can take a company from peacetime to wartime in his book Only The Paranoid Survive.
Uber not only deliberately and flagrantly breaks the law, but it developed systems to prevent police and regulators from doing their jobs.
Uber is like someone who wants to rob banks until he gets rich, and then use the money to stay out of jail and transition into legitimate business.
She seems to be a unique talent who seems genuine from her interviews. I'm curious how she is viewed within Uber and what impact she may be having.
It’s a very unique opportunity for us because she is an expert on what makes companies great. Not just culturally but business strategy too. Having her as a key member of the team is an advantage that t companies don’t have because whereas other people are figuring things out on their own, she actually studied it and taught it.
I hope she stays a long time to help mold this company into one of the greatest companies.
Harvard only?
E.g., for a long distance company fear was the cell phone. ($22B revenue to $8B in a five year stretch)
2. Not competing in self-driving.
The only way to solve THAT problem is purging the tech bros. Sorry, a big name new hire won't address the situation I experienced. Period.
my interviewer was 15 minutes late to the call, didn't even know what position i was applying for, didn't ask me at all about the assignment they made me do, then ended my call early because they had to be somewhere. already knew i didn't get the job but didn't even get back to me until a month later.
person still works at uber. pretty high up now. i guess i'm glad i didn't get farther given all that came out afterwards.
Honest question. How do you know it's a company-wide culture issue if you haven't worked there? In my experience, teams at Uber are pretty insular with only occasional interactions outside their groups.
I also believe I was the target of an information-hunting initiative within uber, which was revealed publicly last year. I believe I was only interviewed to gain as much information about the company i was working for at the time. The recruiter was not listed on any uber database, and may not have even been officially a recruiting lead. after several probing questions about the company i was working for at the time, it became pretty clear the atg group had more of an interest in gaining info on the company rather than hiring me. extremely unprofessional. but that wasnt even the worse part.
I do have a copy of an email about the newest policy governing competitive intelligence gathering from Salle Yoo (head of legal) from late august 2017. Skimming through it, what you described would be in blatant violation of probably half of the document. Not to mention that it flies in the face of basic human decency.
It was very shocking why they were asking very specific technical questions regarding how the company I was working for at the time was addressing. Let's just say it relates to the infamous Uber-Waymo case. That was my red flag, about 30 min - 1 hour into the whole interview process.
Something is up with SF Bay Area corporate culture. There are many taboos -- things you just don't do -- which I only saw broken in my career once I arrived in the Bay Area.
You needn't hold any particular view to post here and relevant personal experience is always welcome, as long as discussion remains thoughtful. Your more factual comments in this thread have been fine.